Actor Mahershala Ali plays the charismatic and violent Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes in the new series, Luke Cage’s rival and owner of a club called Harlem’s Paradise. Ali is also the smooth political power player Remy Danton in Netflix’s House of Cards.

Well, he was. In actual fact, Ali revealed that his time on House of Cards had come to an end. “I didn’t feel that there was a lot more to really explore – and if they didn’t agree with me, I wouldn’t be out of that contract,” he told Deadline. “They understood that we had a good run, you know? You move on.”

So, free and clear to make his mark on the Marvel Cinematic Universe then?